Okay, it’s that time of year when all of the kiddos head back to school, but before doing so, they need to be outfitted with the proper gear. I’m not talking your typical lunch box (which no one uses anymore) and new pair of shoes. No, I’m talking about the dreaded school supply list.
If your child happens to go to a school where the tax dollars are still hard at work, kuddos to you. But for my darling children, the school supply list is a never ending scavenger hunt that will have you combing the city for just that right dimension on the pencil box or the white glue stick as opposed to the purple. Who gives a flying rip when the glue is dry????
I must have looked like a crazed lunatic as I roamed around Office Max last week, because the staff (there had to have been 10 of them in an otherwise empty store) kept avoiding me. I would be searching down aisle 2 for an illusive steno pad (Umm, hello??? – this is for a 3rd grader) when I would catch a glimpse of a red shirt skirting around the corner at speeds meant only for the playground. What emergency could have taken place to require such immediate assistance. A stapler gone awry? Yet another paper jam?
With the exception of moi and my two well-behaved darlings somewhat controlled hellions, the place was a ghost town. For the most part, the mob of moms was over at Target (chic pencil pouches don’t lure me in…I want the $.22 box of Crayolas.)
So, there I was trying to fill my list with two munchkins wielding a shopping cart near my open toed sandals when I scanned down to the writing implements. That’s when I saw it…my nemesis…the Expo MED. POINT dry erase marker. OMG! This is year 4 of trying to find this thing. Thinking that I have chosen to shop at a more diverse location when it comes to all things “office supply-ish,” I see a glimmer of hope. Surely, if anyone is going to stock this marker, it will be this store. Slowly I make my way to the display of dry erase markers. I scan the packages…Rose Art (not allowed), fine tip (too thin), chisel (too bulky). Once again, there is no MED. POINT! I kid you not, I sweated bullets over this when he was in Kindergarten. As a first time school list-er, I was feeling anal about following the rules and not having my child be ostracized over a generic brand crayon or the wrong color binder.
For a brief moment, I panicked. Then I looked into the faces of my two little cherubs who are about to implode if they had to take one more turn about this store. And I decided to throw caution to the wind, we were buying the chisel tip, and not looking back. Quickly I threw the package into the cart before I had time to second guess my decision. (Quite honestly, I’m convinced they don’t even make the thing.)
Next – felt tip markers. Felt tip? I haven’t heard of anyone using these since I was a kid. Just how long has this teacher been around anyway? Steno pads and felt tip markers. I manage to tackle the youngest (and slowest) employee at the store and force her to help me find the pens.
Now, all in all – I managed to get everything on the list in 1 1/2 hours (only to realize when I got home that 3 of my pocket folders had pockets that went vertical instead of horizontal, and I forgot the LARGE box of Kleenex.) It was back to Target we must go, where I found a very cute polka dotted pencil pouch for myself.
My husband had to listen to me rant about those elusive Expo markers for two days. But what stopped him cold in his tracks was when I began monogramming some of the supplies and not others. To his horror, I had to explain that some of these were for our eldest and some went to the “community pile.”
“What, are these schools teaching our children?” he shrieked. “What’s mine is yours??? Why do I pay such high taxes here anyway? The school can’t even supply my kid with a #2 pencil!” No, but I got 22 of them back at the end of last school year!
Quite honestly, I had never really thought about it that way. I was more concerned with the lack of individuality. Up until this year, we followed that list pretty rigidly. But there was a small bit of rebellion when we purchased a pocket folder that sported a Battleship game logo. My son thought this was so cool, I just couldn’t refuse him his sense of distinctiveness.
And so, instead of worrying about how much “trouble” this might cause him later with his regimented, list writing teachers (most of whom, I really do love), I preferred to spend my time thinking back on my own school supply days and how much fun it USED to be. And what came to mind but a pink Trapper Keeper covered with scratch-n-sniff stickers. Heaven. Pencils with glittery designs on them. And Mom, with a smile on her face, as we bought divided notebooks and a big vinyl pencil with a zipper around the eraser that served as my pencil box.
And I don’t think Expo markers had even been invented yet.
